Peroxy compounds are effective bleaching agents, and compositions including mono- or di-peroxyacid compounds are useful for industrial or home cleaning or laundering operations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,152, issued Dec. 7, 1976, inventors Edwards et al., discloses bleaching compositions including peroxygen compounds such as diperazelaic acid and diperisophthalic acid.
Peroxyacids (also known as "peracids") have typically been prepared by the reaction of carboxylic acids with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of sulfuric acid. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,213, inventors Marynowski et al., issued Jun. 29, 1982, discloses a method for making diperoxyacids in which a high solids throughput may be achieved.
However, bleaching products containing peroxyacid compounds tend to lose bleaching activity during storage, due to decomposition of the peroxyacid. The relative instability of peroxyacid can present a problem of storage stability for compositions consisting of or including peroxyacids.
One approach to the problem of reduced bleaching activity of peroxyacid compositions has been to include activators of peroxyacids. U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,290, issued Sep. 20, 1988, inventors Mitchell et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,469, issued Feb. 13, 1990, inventors Farr et al., both of which are of common assignment herewith, disclose stable organic bleach activators suspended in a liquid hydrogen peroxide matrix.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,863, issued Apr. 10, 1990, inventors Aoyagi et al., discloses compounds said to be peracid precursors that have nitrile moieties. U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,616, issued Aug. 17, 1993, inventors Oakes et al., discloses compounds said to be cationic peroxyacid precursors that have nitrile moieties. These nitrile containing activators do not contain a leaving group, such as found in ester-type bleach activators, but instead include a quaternary ammonium group suggested as activating the nitrile and said, upon hydrolysis in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, to generate a peroxyimidic acid as bleaching species. The Aoyagi et al. activators include an aromatic ring, which tends to cause fabric yellowing.
German patent application DE OS 44 312 12, published Mar. 7, 1996, describes production of quaternized glycinonitriles in the form of stable aqueous solutions.
In the parent application, Ser. No. 08/475,292, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,327 N-methylmorpholinium acetonitrile methylsulfate ("MMA") is noted as being of special interest. The MMA is useful as an activator in bleaching applications when combined with a source of active oxygen. These compounds and related ones, however, may be incorporated into liquid formulations, both with and without a source of active oxygen.